Previously, when a service user visits a service providing shop such as a restaurant and a café, the service user shows a mileage coupon issued in advance via an off-line or on-line to check the number she/he has visited the shop, and enjoy benefits such as mileage points or an additional service, etc.
Unfortunately, this manner is very cumbersome since a service user has to carry different mileage coupons for different restaurants or cafés. Further, if a service user forgets to carry a mileage coupon, she/he cannot have the visit counted to be added to the total number of visits.
To overcome such shortcoming, smart phones, which are currently prevalent, are increasingly replacing existing mileage coupons. For example, it has been proposed that a service user visits a shop and logs it on a server by scanning a QR code prepared in the shop with her/his smart phone.
In this manner, however, there is a problem in that a service user may take a picture of a QR code prepared in a shop and may cheat using the picture of the QR code as if she/he has visited a restaurant or a café in a place other than the shop.
To address this problem, it has been proposed to use GPS information to detection whether a service user actually visited a particular shop. However, there is still a problem in that a service user can cheat within an error margin of the GPS information as if she/he visited a shop even though she/he stays near the shop.
There is also another problem in that a service user may make false validation and even an evaluation on a service providing shop or a service provider even though she/he has actually not visited the shop.
In addition, previously, a coupon is provided by a service providing shop such as a coffee shop and a hair salon but not by a service provider actually providing the service such as a barista, a hair dresser, etc. Accordingly, there is no way to evaluate individual service providers or collect a coupon from them.
Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2004-0063420 discloses a method and a system for offering accumulation point using mobile barcode. The method includes: displaying a barcode on a screen of a terminal (step S101); scanning the displayed barcode (step S102); converting the scanned barcode into processable data (step S103); creating billing data including the converted barcode data and billing amount to transmit it to a main server (step S104); analyzing, by the main server, the received billing data to check membership and billing amount (step S105); paying the billing amount to calculate mileage points for the payment (step S106); collecting the mileage points (step S107); and transmitting payment information and mileage point information to the terminal (step S108).
According to this method, a mileage coupon is replaced by displaying a barcode on a screen of a terminal and scanning it.
However, the reference fails to disclose an interface resembling a real paper mileage coupon allowing service users to enjoy collecting coupons. That is, the reference neither discloses providing an interface resembling a paper coupon to ordinary clerks and customers who are accustomed to paper coupons, nor discloses allowing service users to enjoy collecting coupons, other than simply collecting mileage points.